Med-evacs

Tom,
Med-evacs were handeled in the most expeditious manner possible, given the circumstances of the hour. That is to say, if a Marine recon unit in contact with the enemy had an emergency medevac, there was usually no sense in leaving the rest of the recon team out there, so very often we would bring them all in through their own unit's radio network. At other times we might be returning from a resupply mission when we would overhear a transmission on guard frequency with sufficient detail for us to be convinced that it was legitimate. No matter if it was an Army or Marine unit, we would pick them up and take them to the nearest suitable (depending on injury/wound) med facility. Sometimes the call would come from our group radio net through the "duty" squadron for Med-evac. Sometimes the med-evacs weren't very serious, but did need treatment. So when the unit was resupplied the helicopter would bring in supplies and take out non-emergency med-evacs. They could be anything from a minor wound to malaria. I suppose there were as many ways to get the calls as there were units in the field. We knew the call signs and where to go to get them. Often we would take them to the Hospital Ship U.S.S. Repose in Danang harbor.
Hope this helps.
Semper Fi
Joe

While with HMM-263 [ 66-67], we were at Marble, Ky Ha and Phu Bai. We had a duty MedEvac bird standing by 24/7 with the crews at the line shack/ready room. Crews were rotated for day or night and bird was rotated once a day. Corpsman assigned to medevac bird rotated as well. Call would come from Group with phone ringing three times. Copilot and crew would run to bird to crank and get ready while pilot would get coordinates, sitrep and freqs/callsigns. After launch you checked in with Landshark via radio for friendly fire [ arty, naval gunfire, etc.] and any additional info. After making drop at appropriate med facility you checked in again for additional use or return to base. When we were attached to a forward site, like An Hoa, to support an operation, the MedEvac info came direct from the grunt CP on site. Generally, Marines supported Marines, ARVN's and Korean Marines and the Army supported the Army and the ARVN's because that was who was operating in your TAOR. However, where boundaries were close, MedEvacs were used by who was closest/available. Additional were handled as Mr. Reed says, with calls coming from Landshark on guard channel or the grunt unit having your freq [ helicopter in the sky, helicopter in the sky]. Been a while and brain housing group getting a little foggy, but hope this helps.

re: Med-Evacs

While in HMM-363 during '67-'68 our 34 squadron would have the day divided into day and night. Day Med-Evacs were divided also into two 6 hour standby shifts and the night one 12 hour on call standby. The day was normally flown with a Huey gunship, but the night was normally two 34's. That is the way I remember our squadron's procedures. During the fall of '67 we sent flights of up to 8 birds from Marble Mountain to Dong Ha for the day shift and at night we would send 4 birds to Dong Ha. Of course, these numbers varied with other support needed from Chu Lai to the general area around and South of Da Nang. The birds to Dong Ha were used for continuous flights normally all day and night of emergency re-supply and Med-Evacs all along the DMZ from the coast to the Rock Pile and West to Khe Sahn. These birds normally didn't have a Huey gunship but flights of two like the night birds.

During the summer of '68 while the squadran was at Phu Bai, we would do Med-Evacs out of Quang Tri. There we would pick up a Huey gunship and fly the Med-Evacs anywhere from the coast along the DMZ to Khe Sahn and south.

It has been a long time but that is the way I remember it.

Medevac

Dear Tom:

Medevac procedure for MAG-16 1970/71 as follows:

Categories:

Emergency: Life Critical. Death within minutes or hours.
Immediate pickup.
Priority: Serious injury. Medical attention as soon as
possible or within 4-6 hours.
Routine: Illness or minor injury needing medical attention
within 24 hours.
Permenant Routine: Fatality. Pickup as soon as practical.

Most medevac requests came through Danang DASC to Group Operations and the Bunker Bunnie on duty would either call out the day or night medevac package. The day package was one CH-46 and one gun ship. Night Medevac were two 46's and two gun-ships. Night Med was for emergency medevac only. If weather was bad, DASC would coordinate with the Air Force and they would launch a C-130-call sign: "Basket Ball" who would lead us to the medevac location dropping 250,000 (?) candle power parachute flares.

After the pickup "Doc" would prioritize medevacs based upon injurys. Gunshot or other torso wounds went to 1st Medical Bn. Amputation or other serious breathing injuries went to China Beach and all head injury or breech births went to the USS "Sanctuary" or "Repose".

As others have stated, we would react to any medevac request received directly from the ground unit or village medical team. If a hot zone, procedures regarding support and immediacy were left to the pilot but coordinated with DASC. Unlike "Black Hawk Down", Marine pilots had the authority to use their own descretion regarding emergency medevacs. No Marine or U.S. Soldier was left to die in our TAO because of "higher authority".

Hope this helps. Please remember these are the rememberances of 34 years ago as a pilot and "Bunker Bunnie".

Best regards and SF.

Jim